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First Stages of ContactPoint Activation Starts Today
Dated: 26/01/2009
The first steps to activate the Government’s online directory of children’s services – ContactPoint- will begin 26th January 2009.
Starting today, two security vetted officials from local authorities all over England will begin the necessary training to start operating the system. In addition, training will start in 17 LA’s in the North West and two national voluntary sector partners – Barnardo’s & KIDS – where ContactPoint will be more intensively piloted. Frontline practitioners will start training and operating the system in these areas in the spring and across the country from the summer.
Ed Balls and Health Secretary Alan Johnson will also announce today the membership of a new Social Work Taskforce, set up to carry out a comprehensive review of frontline social work practice, including training and any barriers social workers face in doing their jobs effectively. The Taskforce brings together senior professionals with a wide range of social work expertise. Ministers have asked for recommendations by the summer.
ContactPoint is an online directory of basic contact information for all children and is designed to ensure there is easier and faster contact between doctors, nurses, social workers and police when they suspect a child is at risk. It will contain the name, address, date of birth, GP and school of every child in the country and crucially the name and contact details of any professional working with that particular child.
ContactPoint is crucial to help social services, health, police, head teachers and other professionals keep children safe. Under current child safeguarding arrangements, if a professional believes a child is at risk they may have no immediate way of knowing whether other services are already in contact with that child. The Government believes a fully operational system could save at least 5 million hours of professional’s time, currently wasted trying to track down who else, if anyone, is helping the child.
ContactPoint has been developed in response to a key recommendation of the Laming Inquiry into the tragic death of Victoria Climbié.
ContactPoint is backed by major children’s organisations, such as Barnado’s and Action for Children, teachers’ unions like NASUWT as well as the Association of Chief Police Officers, the Royal College of General Practitioners and the Children’s Inter-Agency Group whose members include NSPCC, the LGA and the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health.
No case information will be held on ContactPoint and it will be impossible to download the contents of ContactPoint. An additional precautionary step appropriate for records of children who are at risk of significant harm has been developed. These might include children with particular vulnerable circumstances, such as children from families on witness protection schemes, or where one parent has been the victim of domestic abuse, or in certain cases where the child has been adopted.
Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, Ed Balls said:
“It is good news, that after very careful planning, we can now actively start to deliver Lord Laming’s crucial recommendation from the Victoria Climbie Inquiry.
“ContactPointwill help those who work with children to intervene earlier and prevent problems escalating and will help make sure no child slips through the net of support services. This is how we can improve the well-being of all children, young people and families, and help protect children who may be at risk.”
“The support we have had for ContactPoint from both experts and those that work on the frontline demonstrates to me that we are doing the right thing by helping them to keep children safe, happy and healthy.
“We have seen from recent Serious Case Reviews that the lack of proper and timely information sharing can have tragic consequences.
“No system can ever guarantee that all children will be safe but we know ContactPoint will make a real difference.
On the Social Work Taskforce, Ed Balls will say:
“Social workers do a really difficult job, often in extremely challenging circumstances. They have a vital role in protecting children and young people from harm. The role of the Taskforce will be to support and develop their work, training, recruitment and day-to-day practice so that social work is, and is seen to be, a high quality and self confident profession with the confidence and esteem of the public.”
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